I wander through my town in the same way I want to wander this earth.
Walking down every street silently observing waiving at familiar faces as they drive past.
I don't know how long I'll wander like this.
But I can only assume it will happen when I find a home better than a worn out pair of sneakers and an old leather jacket.

She used to bask in the daylight
And attention and good times
With even better friends

All she knows of now
Is the night train her presence so often occupies
And streetlamps of sad walks in the unbroken silence of the night
Accompanied by none other than the coldest solitude

But after all
The tide still shifts
Sunflowers still grow lovely
They all still talk
Seeing people and going places
They still know how to love
But their love is no longer mine
After all
Who cares about the ghost of a girl
That's been riding the train day and night
Yet all they see is an empty seat

I yell and I frantically wave
But no one hears a silent scream
And taxi-cabs don't stop for ghosts

When I was nine, I promised myself
I would get rich from a card-making business.
I made three sets of cards,
then forgot about it.

When I was ten, I promised my camp friend
that I would write all the time.
I wrote her three letters,
but then one month I forgot to write a new one.
I never remembered.

When I was twelve, a girl from church
pulled up her shirt sleeves to show me where
she had drawn three red lines on her skin.
I promised her I wouldn't tell anyone,
then called her grandmother as soon as I got home.

When I was fourteen, I looked at myself in the mirror
and saw too much of everything.
I promised myself I would become skin and bone
and light as a feather.
I lost everything in three months, but even after that
I was never small enough to fly away.

When I was fifteen, I gave away my glass-box heart
to a boy who promised he'd stick around this time.
We went out three times, but now all I have left
are the smudges from his fingerprints.

Now I'm sixteen, and you're wading through the dustiest parts of me,
promising it'll be okay.

I wish I still believed in promises.